Cisneros Deliberately Lied, Former Mistress Tells Court

June 22, 1999|By BILL MILLER The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The ex-mistress of former housing secretary Henry Cisneros turned on him in federal court on Monday, saying he had deliberately lied about their relationship to FBI agents investigating his suitability for the Cabinet.

Appearing as a government witness, Linda Jones testified at a pretrial hearing on the admissibility of secret tape-recordings she made of telephone conversations with Cisneros, in which he vowed to support her after their affair ended. According to Jones, she also caught Cisneros on tape talking about his plans to mislead FBI background investigators so that he could win confirmation in 1993.

The tapes have emerged as a cornerstone in the case against Cisneros, who is accused of making false statements to the FBI and presidential transition team about the extent and duration of $250,000 in payments he made to Jones. Cisneros, who was indicted in December 1997 on 18 felony charges, has denied any criminal wrongdoing. He did not attend the hearing Monday.

Independent counsel David M. Barrett hopes to introduce the 33 recordings as evidence at Cisneros' trial in September, viewing them as a way to corroborate Jones's account. Defense lawyers are arguing that the tapes cannot be used at trial because they are flawed and altered copies, not originals. Jones admitted in court that she had edited the tapes and destroyed the originals, saying she deleted snippets in which she threatened to expose Cisneros.

Judge Stanley Sporkin appeared sympathetic to defense concerns about the fairness of using the materials, saying at one point, "Here she's editing the tapes, she's going through and picking out what is good for her."

The hearing in U.S. District Court was a preview for what promises to be a tawdry trial.

The tryst between Cisneros and Jones, who then went by the last name Medlar, began in 1987, when Cisneros was the mayor of San Antonio. Cisneros publicly acknowledged the affair in 1988, but later reconciled with his wife and ended the relationship by 1991.

Jones said that after Cisneros went public, she was unable to continue working as a political consultant because of the notoriety brought on by the revelations. Cisneros stepped in to help, she testified, with financial support for her and her daughter.

According to Jones, Cisneros paid her an average of $4,000 a month and agreed to keep up the payments until her daughter graduated from college. But he would not put the agreement in writing, she said. That led her to begin tape-recording conversations, a practice she continued until 1994.

Jones, who turned 50 on Monday, returns to the witness stand today for cross-examination by Cisneros's attorneys.